Glasgow city centre becomes Wi-Fi zone

Wireless access for consumers, council workers

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The centre of Glasgow is now a Wi-Fi zone, the Scottish city's administrators said today.

The coverage comes courtesy of BT Openzone, which now has six hotspots in place in the city's centre, all within 50-100m of "key locations in the city's main shopping and business district", the telco claimed.

The access points are located in payphones situated in Ingram Street's Italian Centre, the north-east and north-west corners of George Square, the Ingram Street/Queens Street intersection, Sauchiehall Street and Societal Street.

The WLAN is open to the public at the usual BT Openzone access rates, but like the Wi-Fi zone put in place in London's Soho district, the network will also shortly be used by council workers to file information that would formerly have required a trip back to base. The public WLAN will host a VPN securely connecting council-issued handheld devices to the organisation's LAN.

The Council said it is considering rolling out IP-based CCTV cameras, bus shelters and even traffic lights. It also pondering plans to offer wireless Internet access in libraries and art galleries, part of its Wireless Glasgow strategy. ®